TORRINGTON, Wyo. – Allora Tanner pounded home 11 kills and the No. 1 Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team swept past Eastern Wyoming College 25-11, 25-7, 25-17 Tuesday night at the Verl Petsch Activities Center in Torrington, Wyo.
The Cougars also received a double figure kill performance from Kayla Martin with 10 kills to run the Cougars record to 9-1. The loss snapped the Lancers 3-match win streak and dropped their record to 3-6.
Tanner said the team played well, especially in minimizing errors in the first 2 1/2 games.
“Today we just focused on our fundamentals and our discipline and going outside, the middles, swinging high and going deep, and just being smart with our game.”
A big key for the Cougars was also minimizing the errors. WNCC had just three missed serves and cut down drastically their hitting errors, committing just 10. On the hitting front, Tanner and Martin had double figure kills, but Kylie Fa’amoe pounded home seven kills, Gaby Varela had six kills, and even regular libero Rachael McCracken played rightside in the third game and smashed home two kills.
Tanner said minimizing those errors is vital when they play national-ranked teams.
“That [cutting down on errors] was our goal and we just needed to work on the little things,” she said. “That is important when we get to bigger and teams that hit harder. We need to do the little things like serve receive, serve, swinging high and getting to the ball to be successful.”
For the Lancers, they had trouble putting together scoring runs head coach Verl Petsch said that playing a top-notch team like the Cougars might have been intimidating.
“We tried to knock them off the net block-wise and we are not strong enough or physically big enough to do that,” he said. “I thought we might have played a little intimidated at times and we didn’t execute like we would have against a team of that caliber.
That intimidation caused plenty of miscues, especially in the passing game.
“I think our passing was a little hesitant at times and we have to get a lot better there,” he said. Tanner said that that they were more worried about their game and not so much what was happening on the other side of the net. And, she said, since they lost to Snow College they have been playing much better.
“When we played Snow they were a really good team and it made us see the competition out there,” she said. “The bigger teams out there do play harder and we have to go out there and play our game and not worry about the other side. We have to worry about our side and play our best and play hard.”
The first game was all WNCC as WNCC used strong serving as they jumped out to a 13-4 lead and later led 21-7 behind five points from Luiza Martins. WNCC won the game 25-11 on two Tanner Kills.
The second set saw WNCC jump out to a 3-0 lead before EWC cut the lead in half at 6-3 on a Faith Banks setter dink. It didn’t last long as Lindsay Wehkamp hammered home a kill and Morgan Broussard served five points for a 12-3 lead.
Moments later, Wehkamp served five points for a 19-6 lead and Martins finished out the game with five straight points.
The third game saw EWC hold their first lead of the match at 1-0, but Rachael McCracken served four points for a 5-1 lead. The Lancers put together nice point run after a Banks kill, Cooper Cercy served two points to cut the lead to 8-5.
WNCC went back in front 15-6 on a Martin kill and then three service points. With WNCC leading 17-9, Banks and Tori Vineyard served the Lancers to an 18-14 deficit. That was as close as they got at WNCC won 25-17 on a McCracken kill.
Brittany Belt let the Lancers with seven kills and four set assists. McKayla Peterson finished with two kills, while Vineyard had six kills, and Banks had 10 set assists and nine digs.
Tanner also had five blocks to go with her 11 kills, while Martin had five blocks, two solo blocks, two digs, and six points. Fa’amoe pounded home seven kills and had four blocks, while Varela had six kills. Priscila Mendes had four kills, five digs, and two blocks.
Also for WNCC, McCracken had two kills, 15 digs, and five points; Wehkamp had two kills, nine blocks, and six points; Martins had 18 set assists, seven points, and three digs; Broussard had 14 set assists and six points; and Erika Goodwin had three digs and an ace serve.
WNCC will be back in action this weekend at the Western Wyoming tournament when they face Western Wyomingon Friday and two other teams on Saturday.
The Lancers will compete this weekend in Sheridan, Wyo., where they will face Dawson and Sheridan on Fridayand Williston and Central Wyoming on Saturday.
